Galileo Chini was at once a painter, restorer, ceramicist, and theatrical scenographer, moving between Symbolism, Divisionism, and Art Nouveau. Galileo Chini painted La notte al Watt Pha-Cheo during his stay in Bangkok in 1912. He leads the viewer outside the temple, allowing a glimpse of a row of monks from behind. In this nocturnal vision, Chini’s “impression” prevails over the figurative narrative, which is barely sketched. He captures the opalescence, the stars, the iridescent colours of the materials, and the glare of the lights on the fabrics. The painter himself assigned the title to the work, writing it on the back of the painting along with the date. He recorded his memory of Watt Pha-Cheo in 1948:
The monks of this temple keep the time With psalms they make a path always the same and rhythmic so that they always take the same time so they are every half-hour at the indicated point where there is a GONGH, which they strike – the time is thus marked.
—Carmen Belmonte
